KENT'S cricketers were given a huge boost ahead of their Twenty20 Cup semi-final win over Sussex when their new mascot "Bomber the Spitfire" - aka Kent Academy supervisor Andy Bennett - won the nPower mascot race at Edgbaston.

Bennett, dressed in his newly-commissioned yellow and black costume led in the early part of the 19-man race only to come unstuck in falling over at the inflatable pads.

But in a Grand National style run-in to the finish, Bennett caught up with Lanky the Giraffe, representing Lancashire, and just like Red Rum catching Crisp, overtook Lanky on the line to win by a length.